Drugs in Madison County: Law enforcement team with teens to battle back at public forum

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – On a gorgeous summer day, cars pack the parking lot of the Madison County Health Department.

Their operators fill an auditorium to learn more about the growing prescription drug problem in Madison County, and the dark future that we’re already seeing.

Madison-Morgan County Drug Task Force Deputy Commander Sgt. Jerry King explains, “Basically, the prescription drugs are getting more expensive on the street, so they’re going to the heroin for a cheaper but a similar high.”

Everyone involved is worried.

King tells us, “Just recently, we’ve had people in the community, people with prior arrest records even that have come to us and talk to us about being involved in drug sales themselves were actually concerned for this change that it’s turning into. The stuff they’re seeing on the street is actually concerning them.”

But the responsibility to fix it doesn’t lie solely with law enforcement. It lies with us too.

Lt. Michael Salomonsky of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office says, “If we depend upon the government, which I’m part of, to raise our children, to make them understand right from wrong or morals or drug addiction, we are lost. It takes people like showed up today with their children and the community to let us know that there are other people watching and taking care of our children. Because the government cannot raise our children. We have to do that.”‘